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Gayle King

On May 30, 2005, Beth Holloway received a phone call telling her that her 18-year-old daughter Natalee went missing during her senior class trip to Aruba. Beth talks with Gayle about her daughter's disappearance and about her book Loving Natalee, which chronicles her family's ordeal from the day Natalee was reported missing.

The night of Natalee's disappearance, Beth says Natalee was celebrating her last night in Aruba with classmates. When they noticed she was missing the next day, local authorities launched an island-wide investigation and soon took into custody local teenagers Joran van der Sloot and Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, who witnesses say were the last to see Natalee. With little evidence, the men were eventually released. In November 2007, the three men were re-arrested in what appeared to be a break in the case. But instead of being charged with a crime, they were released again and the case against them was closed.

Beth says her faith has helped her through the ups and downs of the case, but she doesn't believe Natalee is alive. "What I always knew and believed was that Natalee had a strong relationship with God, and I truly felt that God cared for her through whatever ordeal she went through," Beth says.

Beth says she continues to hope that someone knows what happened to her daughter and will come forward. In the meantime, Beth says she is trying to prevent this type of tragedy from happening to others. She created the International Safe Travels Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating travelers so they can plan, travel and return home safely. "I feel as if our tragedy was losing Natalee, and I truly feel the second tragedy would be if we failed to learn from it and share, and that is what I am committed to do," she says.
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